In this season, whether in the south or the north, there is always a lot of precipitation. The arrival of rain causes a lot of inconvenience to transportation and people's lives, but it can bring a lot of new opportunities for portrait photographers. Below, Gao En Portrait Photography Company shares the lighting skills of shooting beautiful portraits in rainy days. Friends with shooting ideas can learn about it and practice it.
1. Required equipment
1. Off-camera flash. You need to light from multiple directions from the side and rear, and you need off-camera flashes that can be freely adjusted-possibly multiple more. If you have a high speed flash, it couldn't be better.
2. Soft box or soft umbrella. To pursue better light effects, you need a soft box or soft umbrella; The light of the former is "softer", while the light of the latter is more directional. Please choose yourself.
3. When shooting in the rain, waterproofing is also very important. Bring a lens with good water resistance (if available) and a waterproof cover; If it is really limited by conditions, colorless and transparent (or white) plastic bags will do.
2. Related settings
Flexibly adjust your shutter speed with the largest aperture. If you want to darken the background, you can use a shutter speed of 1/200 th second or even higher; If you want to preserve the ambient light, you can set it in the flash sync speed range.
Increases sensitivity. If shooting at night, you can also control the exposure effect of rain by adjusting the sensitivity. Generally, ISO 800 to 1000 is used. Use a white balance that matches the color temperature of the main light. This is especially important when you use color filters to change the color tone of the main light.
3. Basic skills
Whether it is backlight or side backlight, don't let the light source appear directly in the picture. Consider using the model's body for occlusion.
Flashes tend to illuminate the ground next to the model when providing illumination, distracting the viewer. To avoid this problem, you can place the lamp one meter away from the model and light it diagonally upward. If you want to shoot raindrops with a sense of existence, the flash should not be too far away from the model, and it is best not to exceed five meters.
4. Lighting scheme
Point light silhouette
This is the most basic routine. Place the camera behind the model and silhouette/semi-silhouette the model with the "big backlight" and illuminate the raindrops in the air.
Point light source + reflection
Set the flash behind the model and use reflectors in front of her or on her side to reflect the light onto her face. When shooting in an urban environment, you can also utilize surrounding environmental elements (such as walls) to achieve diffuse reflection of light.
Additional light source
除了模特背后的主灯，你还可以再使用另一个闪光灯组，或利用城市环境中的光源（如路灯、橱窗灯等）对模特脸部打光。你可以从正面打光，获取比较均匀的补光效果，但这样可能会导致五官比较平；也可以从斜侧方打光，突出模特的轮廓，制造立体感，但脸上可能会出现阴影。
Cross-type lighting
This "ultimate" gameplay requires three sets of lights: the main light behind the model, and the lights on the left and right sides in front of the model, which can not only illuminate the whole face, but also use contour light to highlight the three-dimensional sense.
Another point to add is that RAW format must be used when shooting, so that there is more room to correct the exposure in the later stage, such as targeted improvement of the brightness of the model's face.
